Custom Quilt Artist Business Plan

Sew Distinct’s website will primarily showcase the range of styles the owner has used in the past. In addition to the gallery, the website will offer information on pricing, the design process and expected customer participation.

The owner has some experience designing websites, but will be quite busy getting other aspects of the business ready for opening. I have hired a colleague with extensive website design experience to create the preliminary setup, based on layouts I have specified. The site will be hosted by a hosting provider with whom I am familiar, who allows relatively inexpensive upgrades in space and features, should I want to expand the site in the future. Since the purpose of the site is mainly marketing related, and no actual sales are transacted there, the focus will be on providing useful information to potential clients, sharing stories and images of past quilts, and offering tips and encouragement to other creative and art quilters out in cyberspace. The website will also include a list of upcoming appearances and lectures by the owner.

6.1 Website Marketing Strategy

The website URL will be included on all my brochures and business cards. I will give a couple of cards to every client along with their completed quilt, with the request that they pass on them on to friends and relatives who might be interested in my quilts, if they were satisfied with their own. This has worked so well in the past that the current website (a one-page bare-bones site) already gets over 10 hits a week.

6.2 Development Requirements

The development requirements for the website are external – for $350, my colleague will design, create, upload, and launch a revised website for Sew Distinct. He will use Dreamweaver to create the site, and estimates that time from initial design to launch will take about three weeks, since I have already approved the layout and map.